Friday, November 30, 2018

Witcher Documentary

The Witcher games are pretty cool, somewhat despite the triteness of the main character, but did you know there is an in-depth documentary about them?

Check out this multi-part series from Noclip that goes in-depth with The Witcher games and the team that made them:

The Story of CD Projekt


Remembering The Witcher 1 & 2

Designing the World of The Witcher 3

Designing the Quests of Wild Hunt

Translating & Adapting the Witcher

Devil's in the Deails

Thursday, November 29, 2018

A City of Cults and Nexus

THE CHILDREN OF THE ASHEN SUN
Despite its vast feeling of decaying permanence, there are those who wish to extinguish the lights of Umberwell. The Children of the Ashen Sun are a sect of druids who believe that they must usher in the end of days to restart the natural cycle of death and rebirth. The Children of the Ashen Sun cult is led by an air jinnasi named Melora Rime; Rime was formerly a prisoner in a far-off land, and the cruelty she experienced has shaped her dim view of the immoral decadence of civilization.

THE CODICES MALEFICA
The six known copies of the Codex Malefica are sentient grimoires possessing unfathomable aims and goals. Servants of the books sometimes hire picaros to further the tomes’ inscrutable agendas; they pay for any services rendered with desirable secrets or particular lore about the Abyssal Disunion and its demonic masters. The six Codices sometimes work at cross-purposes; although the books were penned by the same hand, each has its own desires and schemes.

INTERPLANAR ZONES
There are magical regions scattered throughout Umberwell called interplanar zones—areas of planar breach where the veil between the planes is thin and allows creatures to enter or leave the Material Plane. Umberwell is known to overlap with the Alchemical Plane of Salt, the Dreaming Forest, the Emotional Plane of Sorrow, the Ethersea, the Astral Expanse, the Abyssal Disunion and the Bureaucracy of Hell. At the heart of every interplanar zone is a hungry cipheric hole—a black void of negation that has desires and must be fed if one wishes to slip through the portals and conduits that connect the planes. Each cipheric hole requires a unique kind of satiation before it will open a doorway between planes; one cipheric hole might favor a specific lullaby, while another might crave a rare item or a treasured memory.

LAW, CHAOS, AND BALANCE
Behind the petty squabbles and bloody warfare that occurs between criminal gangs, political parties, aristocratic families, and religious orders are two overarching planar factions: the Machete and the Machine. Agents of the Machete are chaotic; they value liberty above all else and are willing to pay the price of violence and anarchy to protect it. The forces of the Machine are lawful; they foster security and stability at the cost of oppression and obedience. When the battle between law and chaos threatens the balance in Umberwell, the Damozels—pure forces of neutrality sometimes referred to as the Rust Maidens—intervene to protect the city. The Damozels appear in a number of feminine guises; they wield the ultimate power of banishment and are capable of bringing the most powerful creatures to heel within the boundaries of the city—which leads many to believe that they are inextricably linked to the spirit of the metropolis.

I saw one of the city’s Damozels once. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and the most frightening.                             
– Karsk Vendemen, watchman in the Caul ward

* * *


If you like the content above (or any of the content here), consider checking out Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name, system agnostic New Weird city setting, now available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

5e Errata and Two-Weapon Fighting

Hey, look, new errata is out for all three core 5e D&D books!

Aside from some minor--but needed--tweaks to the beastmaster ranger (1), the errata looks like piddly stuff and clarifications so don't go in expecting to be blown away by some bold new design choices.

When it comes to errata and redesigns, I think everyone has their particular hobby horses. Personally, I would have made a few more daring changes (2), but I understand why they want to avoid turning the errata documents in a 5.5 version of the game.

Even so, I know what my big change would have been: two-weapon fighting. Here's what it would look like in my errata:

* * *

Two-Weapon Fighting
When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can can make one additional attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand. You don’t add your ability modifier to the damage of the additional attack, unless that modifier is negative.

If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.

* * *

What's changed? Attacking with your other hand no longer costs a bonus action; instead, if you meet the requirements, that additional attack is folded into the Attack action itself.

Why make this change? The two classes designed and themed around two-weapon fighting, the ranger and the rogue, are actively disincentived from using two weapons because of the action economy. Rangers and rogues have too many things competing for their one bonus action per turn. In the best case scenario that would lead to interesting choices for the player to make, but in practice it feels like two-weapon fighting and the classes who need bonus actions to do their thing were designed by separate people on the 5e team.

Does it break anything? I started accidentally using the above revision of the two-weapon fighting rules when I simply forgot that the additional attack needs a bonus action, and so far nothing's felt noticeably broken. Maybe it's a little more powerful in the early levels because it gives you an extra (though less damaging) attack before 5th level, but it seems ok. 

Here's what I've noted:

  • Two-weapon fighters get another attack if they use Action Surge, but it's still not in danger of overtaking two-handed weapons as the optimal choice for damage in the long run (3).
  • Crit-fishing champion fighters and barbarians benefit just a tiny bit from the change. That;s okay with me.
  • Rogues and rangers feel like they get to use the abilities that define their classes.
* * *

(1) - None of this will "fix" the ranger for people who don't like the class's design, of course. To be honest, the worst part about the ranger is that it has a deadly boring 1st level. Who thought it would be a good idea to front-load the class with two "ribbon" abilities?

(2) - Design changes I would make, that just so happen to look exactly like my house rules:

  • I would also have added more spells to the sorcerer's column of "spells known." 
  • The PHB ranger archetypes could use some additional spells known, much like the archetypes published later have. 
  • I'd also have initiative rolls use either Dexterity or Intelligence.
(3) - At 1st level, I estimate that the difference in damage between a fighter with the great weapon style and the two-weapon fighting style to be about two points--hardly game-breaking--and once 5th level extra attacks come into play, things move toward great weapon fighting gaining an almost three-point lead. Again, hardly game-breaking.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Umberwell: Tieflings, Tritons, Turtlefolk

Races that populate Umberwell:


TIEFLINGS
Although tieflings are persecuted throughout much of the world because of their infernal heritage, their connection to devils is not an impediment to social advancement in Umberwell. Aristocratic tiefling families possess long-standing ties to the city’s history, and particularly charismatic tieflings can find rapid advancement as diplomatic agents negotiating with the Bureaucracy of Hell’s embassy in the city. 

TRITONS
The aquatic tritons are refugees from an underwater nation that was destroyed by a cataclysm. Their amphibious nature has allowed the tritons to become the unofficial lords and masters of Umberwell’s domed Undersea boroughs. Wealthy triton families have a near monopoly on deep sea mining rights within the city’s underwater territories. Triton sailors and navigators are highly sought after by the sea vessels of Umberwell, especially by the hunting ships that prowl the oceans in search of krakens. 

TURTLEFOLK
The nomadic turtlefolk scrape by, doing what they can in the city, before moving on to other adventures. However, some turtlefolk are seduced by the endless opportunities to experience new wonders in Umberwell. A turtlefolk is just as likely to fall under the entrancing spell of cosmopolitan vices are they are to discover a lifelong passion for antiquities amid Umberwell’s many museums. Turtlefolk adorn their flesh with tattoos as remembrances of places they have visited.




If you like the content above (or any of the content here), consider checking out Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name, system agnostic New Weird city setting, now available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG.

Monday, November 26, 2018

Suspiria (2018)

Jack and Kate go off-mission for this very special episode in which they work through their feelings about the Luca Guadagnino-helmed Suspiria remake. Risk the boop of death and join your hosts on this emotionally-fraught journey.
Be warned that SPOILERS ABOUND!
Did the world require a nearly-three-hour-long, beige remake of Dario Argento's hyper-saturated psychedelic fairy tale? How many Tildas is too many Tildas? What are the best circumstances under which to engage with an especially divisive movie? How is the trend of "elevated horror" a lot like Garfield without Garfield? Find out the answers to these questions and so very many more in this mini episode of Bad Books for Bad People.
BBfBP theme song by True Creature 
Find us at BadBooksBadPeople.com, on Twitter @badbooksbadppl, Instagram @badbooksbadpeople and on Facebook. You can discover where to get all the books featured on Bad Books for Bad People on our About Page.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Monday, November 19, 2018

The Outlaw and the Warlock

Two supporting cast characters in Umberwell: the outlaw and the warlock.


Jonas “Nine Lives” Knot
Jonas Knot is a highwayman who was apprehended by thief-takers, given a fair trial by city magistrates, and summarily hanged. Fortunately for Knot, he managed to survive his execution—some catfolk really do have nine lives—and escaped to live a life of banditry once more.
    • Occupation. Outlaw highwayman.
    • Appearance. Catfolk, thuggish swagger, dingy, orange tabby fur, wears the noose from his hanging.
    • Abilities. Marksman, survivalist, banditry.
    • Traits. Violent, gallows humor.
    • Ideal. Kill the magistrate and members of the jury that sentenced him to hang.
    • Bond. Wants to gather a confederacy of rogues.
    • Flaw. Overconfident in his ability to solve all problems with a gun.

Aurelent Masque
Aurelent Masque is a powerful warlock. Everyone in the adventuring trade has heard of her daring exploits. These days she is content to delve into esoteric research rather than set out on quests, but she does enjoy lending her advice and experience to younger, less traveled picaros.
    • Occupation. Independently wealthy warlock.
    • Appearance. Dark elf, precise features, white hair in a sleek cut, scented with jasmine, wears sophisticated clothes—but only wears shades of yellow.
    • Abilities. Fey magic, arcane lore.
    • Traits. Eager to be helpful, often forgetful.
    • Ideal. Enjoy her retirement.
    • Bond. Feels that all adventurers are part of a larger family of choice.
    • Flaw. Easily distracted by books.

Easter Egg: Trey Causey named Aurelent Masque.

* * *


If you like the content above (or any of the content here), consider checking out Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name, system agnostic New Weird city setting, now available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG.

Friday, November 16, 2018

Umberwell Reviews


Not gonna lie: I feel like my recent releases on the Dolorous Exhumation Press imprint are doing pretty well. Some kind soul recently gave Umberwell five stars on DriveThruRPG, it was kicking around the top of the Hottest Small Press list, and reviews of have stated to come in. Thus far people I respect have had nice things to say about it:



And although this isn't a review, it was very cool to see Anne Hunter at DIY & Dragons take the book's Neighborhood Generator for a spin: Two Neighborhoods in Umberwell.

Lastly, although this isn't a review, check out this thread on Giants in the Playground inspired by my Cinderheim book. I lovelovelove that the author started off thinking something like This is a weird book; it seems too shot for a setting book but ended up here instead: "after a while it really warmed on me because I couldn't really point out any pieces of information that felt missing." Even better: the format and focus seems to have inspired them to get some work done on their own DIY setting content. Perfect.

So, yeah, it's been a good year for me putting my stuff out there again. If you review one of my books, let me know! (And maybe consider posting the review on the product page at DriveThru as well.) And if you use any of my stuff in your game, or if it inspires you to do something new with your games, let me know about that too! 

Trust me, I don't do this for the money. The real payoff is hearing about the fun times.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Crabs: The Human Sacrifice

Episode 27: Crabs: The Human Sacrifice
Jack and Kate dive right into the deep end of the Guy N. Smith Crabsiverse with book six in the cult (?) horror (?) series, Crabs: The Human Sacrifice, a book that combines killer crustaceans, ecoterrorism, and BDSM into a particularly grotesque gumbo. When Charles Manson-esque cult leader Pete Merrick decides to sacrifice people in order to save giant crabs from the cancer that threatens to destroy them, he picks the wrong girl and soon a government-trained killer is hot on his trail. THRILL at scenes crabs of indeterminate size ruining infrastructure, GASP as young lovers worry about getting sunburn, and CHOKE BACK NAUSEA at the truly ghastly depictions of pus and vomit.
Who on earth would own a bejeweled alarm clock? Why is everybody in this book so stinky? Will this be the book that finally breaks the bonds of friendship between your hosts? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.
BBfBP theme song by True Creature 
Find us at BadBooksBadPeople.com, on Twitter @badbooksbadppl, Instagram @badbooksbadpeople and on Facebook. You can discover where to get all the books featured on Bad Books for Bad People on our About Page.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Factions in Cinderheim

What factions exist amid the hellblasted deserts of Cinderheim?

The Riders of Golgoth are a posse of demon-warped desperadoes unaligned with any of the seven encampments or their demonic masters. The Riders travel the wastes, mercilessly slaughtering and cannibalizing any travelers or settlements within their power to overrun.

The Black Powder Apostles are a secret society of faithful servants of the gods of good. Although their membership is drawn from disparate religions and systems of belief from across the world, they have banded together to purge Cinderheim of abyssal corruption. The see themselves as sacred exorcists.

The most influential, wealthy, and cunning merchants of the seven encampments belong to a consortium known as the Wheel. The Wheel works in secret to consolidate economic power, undermine Cinderheim’s warlords, and exert mastery over the desert’s settlements through control of vital resources.

The Architects are a group of devils, infernal cultists, and their enthralled servants who wish to usurp demonic influence over Cinderheim. They plot to replace abyssal sovereignty with a diabolic tyranny at the behest of the Bureaucracy of Hell.


The Maiden’s Templars are a warband of holy knights occupying a self-sufficient fortress in the mountains of Cinderheim. They serve Lady Janaina, a virginal zealot who has brought her most loyal warriors to Cinderheim to wage war against demonic evil to atone for her father’s prodigious sins.


If you like the content above and want your own copy of Cinderheim, it's available here in print and pdf.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The Horrors and Delights of B/X Mars

All art in this post by Michael Gibbons
Confession: I've read Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars and I thought it was pretty bad. The plot feels like an overheated and breathless litany of "And then this happens, and then this happens!," the main character seems like the epitome of naked (heh) wish-fulfillment, and the ending was a textbook example of an author simply running out of steam. I've never bothered to venture past the first book in the series; I doubt I'll ever be tempted to return to it.

And yet, when Michael Gibbons put out the call for players in his B/X Mars game, I volunteered with alacrity.

I have not regretted this decision.


B/X Mars is not Burroughs's Mars. There are obvious similarities, of course. B/X Mars draws a lot of inspiration from the planetary romance and larger science fantasy genres; Gib's Mars is a land of ancient technologies and lost civilizations fallen into ruin. The planet's deserts are hot and unrelenting, the people strange and savage, and barely clad warriors armed with swords face off against each other amid the red sands. 

The Mars flavor is in there, there's no denying it, but I want to focus on three things that have made this particular game more than an exercise in pastiche: the structure, the mystery, and the emergent themes.


The Structure
When we started playing this campaign, we were told that our party was wandering the desert, searching for civilization. We had a rough map and free rein to go wherever we wanted. So, a basic sandbox, right? 

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of hexcrawl-style sandbox campaigns; I've played in enough of them that felt like railroads constrained by the "paths" you were highly encouraged to follow. 
This B/X Mars game short-circuits the potential for boredom by offering up other ways to travel around the wastes besides hoofing it--we've uncovered trains, lifts, and transmat devices. Half the time we have no idea where we are and it's glorious.


The Mystery
A good portion of the fun in this campaign has been the thrill of discovery. We are not just figuring out the rules (hacked substantially from B/X D&D), we're also figuring out the world as we play. For example, early on we found a mysterious metal triangle. Then we found more of these triangular devices. Then we found depressions in other objects in which the triangles would fit. To say we wasted a tremendous amount of time messing about with the triangles would be an understatement. The game isn't just a sandbox, it's a toy box and we have a lot of stuff to play with. Can't wait to find out what I can do with the stingstick I got in the last adventure!


Emergent Themes
It turns out that the planetary romance elements in B/X Mars are only part of the story. As we've been playing we've come to the collective realization that B/X Mars is also a horror game. We've already had one total party kill--only to be resurrected by the Martian version of Victor Frankenstein so he could experiment upon us. Don't worry, we eventually took him out in a Tarantino-meets-Saw ploy where we garroted him while stabbing him into corpsedom. 

We never feel like invincible John Carters or Deja Thorises. Our Martian princess plummeted to her death after a marsquake knocked her from a rope bridge into a deadly ravine. Our Thark! was destroyed by a flame-headed mummy.

And that's just the half of it. We've been assaulted by, and run from, a deathsquad of shambling reanimates. We fought off armies of warlike antmen. We encountered a horrible freak who had the mewling faces of infants sewn to his body.

And don't even get me started on Mr. Whip, the NPC I hate and fear above all others.

So, here's the thing, Michael is currently working his B/X Mars material into a lavishly illustrated product that you can buy and use for your own games. Choose wisely and keep an eye here for more news.

Monday, November 12, 2018

A City of Crime

THE INTOXICANT TRADE
The illicit manufacture and distribution of intoxicants is a booming business in Umberwell. Blue orchid, opium, dream-milk, hallucinogenic runes, and snowleaf are peddled by alchemical drug cartels run by criminals such as the spiderfolk drug czar Mancible Raunch and the fractious sibling warlocks Liutang and Shijin Chung, as well as by independent dealers such as Quivering Nym.

AN URBAN WAR ZONE
Umberwell is often a battleground where opposition turns into violent crime. The contentions between the followers of the manticore meta-painter Praemen Muz and fans of Rua Ibrahim, a medusa “petrification artist” who enters contracts with the suicidal to let her immortalize them as statuary, sometimes explode into open warfare. The eternal Everwar, a cosmic struggle fought between factions of fiends and celestials across the multiverse, has been known to engulf entire wards of the city when hostilities break out anew on the Material Plane.

The population of Umberwell numbers about seven million souls—that’s a lot of pockets to pick. The thought of all that bobbin jinglin’ about in coin purses and coats makes a slickfinger tingle with anticipation.                                                           
– Saffron Mordekai, Cardinal Queens gang member

* * *


If you like the content above (or any of the content here), consider checking out Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name, system agnostic New Weird city setting, now available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name is NOW RELEASED in Print and Pdf!

Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name is now available in print and pdf at DriveThruRPG!

Discover Umberwell, a fantasy metropolis of stunning strangeness and decadent splendor. Explore a city of urban dungeons, encounter marvelous artifice, and hear the prayers offered to the six goddesses of the City of Exiles. Tour the city’s island sprawl, its underground warrens, its undersea domes, and the rusting towers that lead to its skyward reaches. Mingle with devious wizards, thieving gangs, and creatures drawn to the city from across the planar multiverse. All you have to do is learn to survive the streets, crypt-kicker! Beautiful fiends, deadly assassins, scheming secret societies, raucous cabarets, and horrid monsters await just beyond the harbors. Embark and taste the impossible fever dream.

Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name is a system-neutral city campaign setting for picaresque urban fantasy adventures inspired by New Weird fiction. The book includes:
  • Art by Tenebrous Kate.
  • Details on the city of Umberwell, including information on its demoness mayor, its worm trains, its dangerous gangs and cults, its interplanar zones, and much more.
  • Information on the myriad races who populate the city.
  • Ideas for genre-appropriate characters and the reasons that brought them to the metropolis.
  • Eleven factions and twenty-six NPCs to involve your players in intrigue.
  • Advice and tools for running a fantasy RPG in an urban setting.
  • Tools for use in game, such as copious adventure seeds, random tables, and a comprehensive adventure generator that gives you the basis of a scenario with little prep.
  • A full index of subjects, an index of adventure ideas, and an index of the book's random tables.
  • A design philosophy that prioritizes ease of use and speed of play. All "lore" entries are easy to scan, and make use of bullet points and bold text to draw your attention to the important bits so you can get on with your game.
  • Bundled with the pdf is a free supplement, Scardogs and Scapegraces, which expands the detailed NPCs to fifty characters that can act as contacts for player characters in the city.
Let's take a look at the printed book:


Not gonna lie: I love this cover image of fantasy ne'er-do-wells up to no good on the streets of Umberwell. There is also some caveat emptor here: if your idea of fantasy doesn't include a goblin, a ravenkin, and a gnome teaming up, Umberwell isn't for you. Umberwell is a decidedly non-Tolkien and non-traditional fantasy city. Imagine the cantina scene in Star Wars and you've got a bit of the vibe.

A sample of the way the setting is described--with a heavy focus on the gameable bits. Note that the entry ends with some adventure ideas; Umberwell is filthy with seeds to build setting-specific scenarios around. There are twenty-eight adventure seeds as examples of the kind of trouble characters can get up to in the city. (And there is a separate index of adventure ideas.)

I heard you like random tables, dawg. There are more random tables in Umberwell than I've ever put in one of my setting books. Included are tables explaining why your character has come to Umberwell, who they've pissed off, random encounters, a neighborhood generator, an adventure generator, a cabaret generator, and more. (There is also an index of random tables.)

What's the chapter art look like? Let's just say that Tenebrous Kate was sent by a dark god to destroy. I mean look at the image to the right: slyly diabolique, decadently Weimar-esque, a bit blasphemously ecclesiastical...it's perfect. Kate was a dream to work with; she took my ham-fisted descriptions, went in, and did work.


Wednesday, November 7, 2018

EMPTY PALM CRUSHES THE DECEITFUL

aka "The Comics Post"

I often hear comic fans lamenting that "there are no good comics anymore." I can see their point, somewhat. Frankly, I find a lot of what seems popular in the world of comics to be uninteresting and shoddily done.

On the other hand: man...I can't even keep up with all the stuff I want to read, and I'm not even a single-issue kind of guy. I mean, look at that image over to the left. That's the good shit. Thanks to the internet there is a preponderance of the good shit just about everywhere you turn.

It is likely that you do not share my taste in comics. That's fine. But if you're open-minded and can't find good comics to read along the narrow band of popular interest let me make some recommendations:

And that's just the stuff that's still ongoing. There's a couple things I want to mention that finished their runs in recent memory:

Monday, November 5, 2018

Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name Coming Soon

Proof copies of my next setting book, Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name, are currently en route to me. Which means that if everything looks right it will be on sale in a week or so.

Curious about Umberwell? Here's the blurb:

Discover Umberwell, a fantasy metropolis of stunning strangeness and decadent splendor. Explore a city of urban dungeons, encounter marvelous artifice, and hear the prayers offered to the six goddesses of the City of Exiles. Tour the city’s island sprawl, its underground warrens, its undersea domes, and the rusting towers that lead to its skyward reaches. Mingle with devious wizards, thieving gangs, and creatures drawn to the city from across the planar multiverse. All you have to do is learn to survive the streets, crypt-kicker! Beautiful fiends, deadly assassins, scheming secret societies, raucous cabarets, and horrid monsters await just beyond the harbors. Embark and taste the impossible fever dream.

Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name is a system-neutral city campaign setting for picaresque urban fantasy adventures inspired by New Weird fiction. The book includes:


  • Art by Tenebrous Kate.
  • Details on the city of Umberwell, including information on its demoness mayor, its worm trains, its dangerous gangs and cults, its interplanar zones, and much more.
  • Information on the myriad races who populate the city.
  • Ideas for genre-appropriate characters and the reasons that brought them to the metropolis.
  • Eleven factions and twenty-six NPCs to involve your players in intrigue.
  • Advice and tools for running a fantasy RPG in an urban setting.
  • Tools for use in game, such as copious adventure seeds, random tables, and a comprehensive adventure generator that gives you the basis of a scenario with little prep.
  • A full index of subjects, an index of adventure ideas, and an index of the book's random tables.
  • A design philosophy that prioritizes ease of use and speed of play. All "lore" entries are easy to scan, and make use of bullet points and bold text to draw your attention to the important bits so you can get on with your game.
* * *

So here's the thing, Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name has twenty-six NPCs in it for use as contacts, nemeses, or examples of "supporting cast" characters in your games. Originally, I had written fifty NPCs for the book, but that seemed excessive.

I cut twenty-four for the book, but...the write-ups are good. Good enough to form the core of the first supplement for Umberwell: Scardogs and Scapegraces

I've decided to bundle Scardogs and Scapegraces in with the pdf of the main book, free of charge. If you buy Umberwell, you'll get both. Enjoy!

Friday, November 2, 2018

Total Skull: Eternal Return, Corn Maze, For My Crimes, Witching Hour

Things that brought me delight in October, 2018:

 Windhand, Eternal Return
There is a grungieness here that I didn't expect, and when it soars it soars.


Corn maze at Stoughton Farms
Getting lost in a corn maze for an hour or so...is there a better way to spend an October afternoon?

Marissa Nadler, For My Crimes
Marissa Nadler at her most lethe-ward.

Robin Hoelzemann, The Witching Hour
The white horse rides.

Tempel, On the Steps of the Temple and The Moon Lit Our Path
The great thing about bandcamp is that it lets you creep on your friends who have great taste in music. I picked these up after seeing that Wayne Snyder was into 'em.


Psycho with live orchestral accompaniment
Psycho still feels fresh with every viewing, but I have to admit that hearing the score performed live was thrilling.

Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney
So many threads of creeping dread wrapped-up in this novel: the grotesquery of religious certainty, the timelessness of uncaring nature, the Faustian pact, the ties that bind. I suspect I'll be talking about this one more at length when it comes time to contemplate the year's best.


Portal, Outre and Seepia
Absolutely subterranean.


Hellbound: The Blood War
Fairly overflowing with poachable ideas.


Frank Miller, Sin City: Booze, Broads, & Bullets
Even the stories behind the stories are good.


Lydia Deetz Funko Pop
I try not to be a hoarder of Funko Pops, but come on. COME ON!


Halloween
I was a little unsure going into this one, but the Halloween reboot/sequel was actually really fun.


Death and Mourning in the Gilded Age at the Phelps Mansion
Murder bottles by candle light.


Castlevania, Season 2
Although it isn't quite the Castlevania series of my dreams, I enjoyed the longer season a bit more than the first.


Embers of the Forgotten Kingdom
System-neutral, Dark Souls-inspired setting material that I plan on riffing off of mercilessly if I ever get to run a Krevborna campaign that has fey at the center of the story.


Kentaro Miura, Berserk vol. 19
Prediction: Lady Farnese is going to end-up on Guts's side.


The Devil's Advocate
New thesis: The Devil's Advocate is a loose adaptation of Matthew Lewis's The Monk.


W. H. Pugmire, The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams
Pugmire's fiction is becoming a guilty pleasure: there's something here, and it's not technically good, but the idiosyncratic fixations are possibly worth charting as a cautionary tale.